Rev. Don Campbell
THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL
Paul says that the gospel reveals God’s way of making the unrighteous righteous through faith in Christ (Rom 1:16-17).
What Paul writes next has given commentators trouble. They cannot understand the connection between verses 16 and 17 and verse 18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (NKJV). It is not that they don’t understand the words, but they don’t understand why Paul used the word “for,” which indicates a connection with what went before—in other words, the connection between the good news (gospel) and the bad news (the revelation of God’s wrath).
Perhaps they are overthinking the passage, or I am underthinking it. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins (Rom 3:21-26). What greater way could God warn us of the horrors of hell than to send his beloved Son to die for us, to try to keep us from going there? That is the message of the writer of Hebrews:
Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people” (Heb 10:28-30).
The good news of the cross is that we don’t have to go to hell, because Christ died for us. The bad news of the cross is that if we reject that sacrifice or accept it and then trample upon it by viewing grace as license to sin, we will experience the wrath of God in all its fury.
Good news. Bad news. The choice is ours.
